Blue Ray discs are estimated to last for up to 20 years under proper storing conditions. That is quite a long time. If you need something to last longer there are M-Discs. They are made of some sort of stone and they are estimated to last 1000 years. You can store up to 100gb on them.

I guess the biggest problem with all these solutions will be to still find a working player that will be able to read the discs in 20 or 50 years.

 

Tape for archiving, if you´re serious about it.. slow but reliable

 

how long do SSDs last if you power them up once in a while?

 

i wish hard drives lasted 50 years. maybe i have to make my own hard drives.. that would flip the entire computer market upside down

 

Blu-ray

In principle, Blu-ray, which means "blue ray," is a further development of CDs and DVDs. However, Blu-rays have up to eight storage layers, and the data tracks are much closer together. Blu-rays are also available in various formats: BD-ROM, BD-R, and BD-RE, as well as BDAV (audio-video), BDMV (movie), and Ultra HD Blu-ray.

For incremental and differential storage; archiving
Capacity: 25 GB – possibly 100 GB; up to 500 GB would theoretically be possible
Cost: depending on the format, from approximately €15.00 for 25 units
Lifespan: 50 to 100 years with optimal storage

Spoiler: Source: Grok KI

SSDs last a very long time even if you only power them up occasionally, but the main enemy when the drive is unpowered (sitting on a shelf) is data retention time rather than traditional wear from writes.

Here’s a realistic breakdown (based on real JEDEC standards and manufacturer data from Samsung, Intel, Micron, WD, etc.):



Storage Condition Typical Data Retention (powered off) Realistic safe period if you power it up occasionally
TLC NAND (most consumer SSDs today) at end-of-life (warranty writes done) 1 year at 30°C 3–8 years
TLC NAND fresh or lightly used 5–10 years at 30°C 10–15+ years
QLC NAND (cheaper/bigger drives) ~1 year at end-of-life 3–7 years
MLC/enterprise-grade 10+ years 15–20+ years
Stored at high temperature (40–55°C) Drops dramatically (can be months) Avoid hot storage

What “power up once in a while” actually does

• Every time you power on the SSD, the controller wakes up, checks the NAND health, performs background patrol reads and read-refresh operations if it detects weak cells. This effectively resets or greatly extends the retention clock.
• Even just booting into BIOS or plugging it in for 10–15 minutes is usually enough for the firmware to do its housekeeping.

Practical rules of thumb


How often you power it on Expected cold-storage lifespan (room temperature)
Every 6–12 months 15+ years (almost indefinite for practical purposes)
Every 2–3 years 8–12 years typically safe
Every 5+ years or never Risk of data loss rises sharply after ~7–10 years

Real-world anecdotes (2023–2025)

• People are still reading data from 10–12-year-old Samsung 840/850 TLC SSDs that sat unpowered for 5–8 years.
• Failures in long-term cold storage are still rare below ~10 years if the drive wasn’t already heavily worn and wasn’t cooked in a hot attic.

Best practices if you want archives to last decades

1. Use high-endurance or enterprise SSDs (e.g., Samsung 870 EVO, 990 PRO, Intel/Micron enterprise lines) — they use better NAND and more spare area.
2. Don’t fill the drive 100 % — leave 20–30 % free for the controller to manage weak cells.
3. Store at room temperature or cooler (every 10°C lower roughly doubles retention time).
4. Power it on and run a full read scan (e.g., CrystalDiskInfo or manufacturer tool) every 1–2 years.
5. Keep multiple copies or migrate data every 8–10 years — this is what archives actually do.

Bottom line: If you power an SSD on every year or two and keep it at normal room temperature, it will very likely outlast HDDs in cold storage. Unpowered for a full decade carries some risk with consumer TLC/QLC drives, but occasional power-ups make SSDs one of the most reliable long-term digital storage options today.

 

I highly recommend the enterprise/NAS drives, particularly the Seagate EXOS or IronWolf drives. I occasionally buy certified renewed drives for archiving...they are discounted and reliable.

 

SSDs don't seem so bad. I think the losing data thing over time is blown out of proportion most of the time.

 

CrystalDiskInfo - A HDD/SSD utility software which supports a part of USB, Intel RAID and NVMe.

The free software CrystalDiskInfo allows for detailed diagnostics and analysis of hard drives, including HDDs and SSDs. CrystalDiskInfo provides a wide range of values and information about the hard drive, clearly indicating its condition. These include partitions, temperature, read and write error rates, rotational speed, storage and buffer sizes, firmware version, serial number, and the total operating hours of the hard drive.

Free Download: https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo

 

Yup. I have Crystal Disk Info on every computer and I check the status of my disks at least once a week.
It saved my ass a couple of times, because it warns the user when a disk starts to have problems - there's time to move the data elswhere.

 

MiddleFingerDrive from Katech Solutions

"Hard enough to keep the Queen smiling"

...for 50 years

 

No matter what you do, there is no guarantee that any given data carrier (Paper, HDD, DVD, BluRay, SSD...) will last a certain amount of time. MTBF is merely a statistical value. Looks nice but doesn't mean anything for one single data carrier. And it does not say a data carrier of any kind cannot become defective on its first day on earth.

Therefore, there is really only one rule:
Never put all your eggs in one basket.

I'm quite a data backup nut*. And yet, ... if things go really south, I can still lose data.

The most data losses are not induced by hardware faults but human factor:
Own stupidity and laziness is a very important factor or exaggerated self-confidence, and even the best hard drive is of no use to me in that case.
I've made some stupid mistakes myself over the years, so I no longer boast about my own infallibility.
Since you can't really rule out every possibility, there are also insurance policies available to cover data loss for private and business.

Spoiler: what backup nut means*

Personally, I have two NAS (RAID5+spare) devices in operation with iterations of backups on it and have two backup NAS (RAID5+spare) devices. They are physically separated. The fifth NAS (RAID5+ spare again) device is used to back up the backups for the most important data, such as accounting, contracts, documents, music, photos, personal memorabilia etc., and it is stored at a different address in a different city.
I've had several data losses over the years, RAID5 made it not stopping my business and backups helped to recover data in a few hours.

 

Western Digital never fails

 

I find HDDs are really really slow nowadays, it is quite incredible. Every time I plug-in 4tb hdd it takes ages to appear on the desktop and the browsing is just so slow compared to SSD not to mention writing / reading files. I think I will use SSD for archiving because of that reason alone.

 

Optical is good, but I have found that system backups are rarely ever static except for a few servers I have. Which is why I prefer HDD's for this purpose. IMO, HDD's for the longer haul will be more stable and a better solution for critical backup data - especially for dedicated use powering them only when needed. I also don't necessarily need to keep outdated backups. I have found optical is better for saving off stuff like sisite scene releases. Although the releases that are larger than 50GB are not really practical for optical so the big stuff mostly gets stored on HDD as well.

SSD's are good solutions for system drives that require fast read write speed as well as quick easy day to day maintenance.

 

Last edited: Nov 20, 2025 at 8:26 PM

I only buy Hitachi/Western Digital data center helium drives and put them in a USB 3 tower attached to my 4 drive Windows NAS micro server. So they are all online, but usually not spinning unless needed. I still have 4TB WD datacenter drives that work perfectly fine with no bad sectors years and years later. Mechanical things don't like to sit idle for years and years of non-use, so a low level of activity is desirable.

I've had the 5 drive model of this for 2 years and it's been great so far.

 

RAID 0
The rest is for pussies

Spoiler

 

Cloud storage is the way to go:

https://hosting.aruba.it/en/aruba-drive.aspx

 

I have had my WD 2tb external hdd for about ten years and hasnt sl·lowed abit

 

Good ones should last a veeery long time. Just refresh the data once a year or two years, and you can take it to your grave with you.
Tape is also great. Doesn't need refreshing that often, but it's much slower.